[Episode] Another stop, another bar to tend.

Noda looked deep into his eyes, with his entire heart he believed those words and it reflected in his eyes. Too bad, she didn't believe it. "Fuck you pirate!" Sending her fist flying through the smoke boy's ethereal body. "Don't let him get away!"

"Ahhh shit!" Volo mumbled through the swelling as he looked at the charging marines.

Volo took to the sky, shooting upwards with an explosion of smoke, blinding the looming crowd. "Karl!" He shouted as he raced towards his pal, scooping him up as he blew passed.

"What are you doing?! Let's go!" Noda waved the pack to follow her. "Captain!" She shouted! "Captain...! Captain Marion, Sir!" Growing louder the closer she got to the sleeping captain.

"CAPTAIN!!" Slamming the sea stone sword on the top of the captain's skull. "WAKE UP! HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

"GHHEEEEE!!!!" The pain shocked the man awake, "Yowww.......hmmmmm...." Nursing his balding head with every rub. Hmmm....Why yes.... He is getting away isn't he....?"

"Yes!! Now let's go!!" Waving the man on furiously as she took after Volo, refusing to wait for her superior.

"My ship isn't too far from here!" Volo shouted as they jetted through the skies, the smoke billowing from his waist faster than it ever had. "Hopefully Bill's back, we aren't gonna have much time.

Within minutes Emilia came into view, the final stretch was here.

"Fuck!" Volo grunted as he saw the marine blockade ahead. "Hold on tight!" He gripped Karl as the pair twisted and turned in the air, whipping back and forth at a moment's notice to dodge the incoming projectiles. Canons and guns, arrows and spears, violence and death tore through the sky after the duo with every move.

"FIRE!"

The word echoed out again and again as the sound of cannon fire erupted through the air. "C'mon....c'mon.....just a bit further now.....!"

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Karl's running away got cut short when he was swooped up off the ground by none other than Volo using his devil fruit powers. "Hey what the hell?! Let go of me!". Cold sweat was forming around Karl's neck, all the way reaching down his back.

With each passing moment, he could feel his head becoming dizzier and dizzier. The vision was becoming hazy... And then, the shock kicked in... And Karl became scared. "YOU SON OF A BITCH LET GO OF ME! I'D RATHER FALL THAN BE UP HERE! I HATE THIS! LET GOOOOOOOO~!!!"

The screams echoed through the town they were in. Karl was very expressive about the situation he was in. The man hated heights if his reaction was not already a clear indication.

The expressive nature of his current situation did not bring any bonus points to them. The loud scared screams were a good giveaway of their location, along with the smoke trail. And of course, the marines capitalized on it, as they should do.

Each movement and dodge in the air did not do any good to Karl, in the being scared aspect. It did plenty of good to him, by not dying! The movements were so fast and sharp, that he could feel the insides of him twist and turn.

The nausea was starting to kick in, and his cheeks were puffing up. He was trying to hold his breath, maybe that'll help him not throw up. That also helped him from being so expressive. Maybe they'll find a moment to finally get away from the marines this way.

But, the silence broke when the ship was nearly in sight. "No... No... That's not it... I WILL NOT GO ON IT!" The blimp was waiting for him.

[294/6801]

Meanwhile, back on Emilia...

After a long day of playing butler to a loser and a whore, Bill just wanted a moment to relax. The bounty hunter turned pirate laid out in a hammock up on deck. It was warm out. The storm had passed and the sun was shining. Life was good he thought.

Bang! Boom!

“What was that?” yawned Bill at the distant sound. “Another storm?”

At least it sounded like it was far away he thought. Bill pulled his hat down over his face and closed his eyes. Slowly he began to drift off to slee...

BOOM! BANG!

“What the fuck?!”

A cannonball hit the water just centimeters away from the ship. Salty sea spray showered the deck, soaking the sleepy Bill. Suddenly wide awake, he fell face-first out of the hammock and frantically scrambled back up to his feet. He looked out at the water and his eyes went wide at what he saw. Several ships full of soldiers, with guns and cannons blazing, were all chasing after his flying captain and some poor sap who was being drug along for the ride.

Bill just sighed. Of course, it was Volo's fault.

“The hell Volo?! What did you do!?”

"Start the ship!" Volo shouted as his swollen cheeks flapped in the wind. "We gotta go!" The words echoed with cannon fire as they swooped and swayed, dipped, and dived, each furiously rapid motion narrowly avoiding certain death as Karl struggled to keep down his lunch.

"Don't let him get away! Seal off the harbor!" Noda shouted over the Den Den Mushi.

Marines encroached on Emilia, rifles pointed at the deck. "Freeze pirate!" Shouting at Bill from below.

Reaching the dock, Volo landed with an explosion of smoke, sending the marines tumbling off the docks and into the sea. "We gotta fly!" Tossing Karl onto the deck before shooting himself up after.

He rushed to the engine room frantically, scrambling to get Emilia's old gears turning. The screeching and grinding echoed out with a faint clanking sound as smoke began to sputter from the exhausts. "C'mon.... C'mon..." Nervously tapping the engine, the balloon slowly filled itself up as every second felt like hours.

Boots making contact with the ground echoed and grew louder and louder. The marines shouted as their gear clinked, sprinting towards the pirates desperately trying to make their escape.

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Thud. A painful drop from mid-air. Karl was dropped down on the deck of the ship. The man even rolled forward a bit towards the edge railing of the ship from the share momentum of the drop. Karl rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky, except the view was blocked by a massive metal 'balloon'.

Just as the thought of being safely back on the ground had settled into his mind, the ship began to shake, and along with it, the loud rattling noise of metal. It felt as if this ship is about to fall apart right there, right now.

The mind had cleared up, and the realization had kicked in. He was on the blip! And that shaking and rattling... Karl recollected himself back up on the feet and rushed over to the railing, only to see the sea and the docks stay further away from him. The ship... No... The blip had begun its ascend.

"No... No... Nononono." the legs began to shake, and the cold sweat that had disappeared, returned. The fear has returned. Karl dropped down to his knees and he crawled away from the edge as close to the middle of the ship as he could. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS NIGHTMARE?!"

Not even the cannon shots and all the other assaults could distract him from the fear of flight he was feeling... For him, this right now, this ship, felt like hell on earth. Nothing more, nothing else.

[248/7049]

Bill dove to ground to avoid the bullets whizzing over his head. As expected, Volo had ignored his objections. The gunslinger's profanity laden rant had been drowned out by the loud cracks and bangs of marine gunfire as well as the roar of Emilia's engine and the subsequent rattling of her deck as she took flight.

Frantically, Bill looked around for something, anything, he could use to return fire but to no avail. Inwardly, he cursed at himself for leaving his weapons in the crew quarters below deck. Outwardly, he cursed at Volo for not installing cannons on Emilia.

That was when he noticed the other man onboard with him. The poor schmuck was way too well dressed to be a proper pirate. And the fear and anxiety that Bill could feel radiating off of them, even without his extra senses, only seemed to confirm those suspicions. Bill would figure out who that guy was and why Volo had kidnapped them later, but for now, he thought, he just needed to help them survive the fire-fight.

“Keep your head down!” shouted Bill as he rushed toward the unknown man. The gunslinger would attempt to shove the fellow to the ground.

Bill pointed to a heavy looking hatch on the ground with a large handle on it that looked like something on an old-timey safe.

“Get below deck!" he commanded. "It's safer! Just don't touch nothing!”

Emilia managed to make its way into the sky, Volo doing his best to ward off any cannonballs that made it to close while pair Bill and Karl hid below deck.

Noda grunted as she stomped her feet and ordered the marines to ready the ships. "Set the sails! If it's a chase he wants, we'll give it too em!"

"Hohoho...my... miss Noda you are quite invested in catching this one... eh?" The old man's tone insinuates something a bit more than he let one.

"Shut up and get to the ship!"

"My my... Someone... is-zzz...." Dosing off mid-sentence.

"I said get on the ship ya old fart of a captain!" Whacking him upside the head once more with the sea stone club.

"Yeooowww!" Rubbing his head, Captain Marion shuffled off towards the ship with a tear falling from his constantly shut eyes.

One by one, the half dozen marine ships sailed out of the port towards Emilia, hot on the Red Wing Pirates trail.

"Sir!" A petty officer rushed up behind Captain Marion on the deck of the fleet's flagship, the Sandman. "We found a bounty for the man spotted on board. Sir!"

"Hmm....yes....zzz...." A snot bubble changed size with every breath.

"Give me that!" Noda snarled, snatching the poster from the petty officer's hands. "Bill 'Hotshot' Holiday...?" Tossing the bounty aside. "So, he's got himself a crew now, huh?"

[Mossebella Affiliated Casino]

*Ding* The door chimed as a shadowed figure entered the building ominously. Drawing the attention of the manager and the other poor soul left to clean up after the C.O.L.D. incident. The color quickly drained from their faces upon realization of who it was.

"Hey, bub." A raspy voice called out amongst a plume of thick smoke from the speaker's lips. So thick it seemed like his large buck teeth were cutting it in two. "You mind if I ask you's question? Cause uhh, ya see, I'ma.. I'ma bit confused as to how our affairs on dis here island have ended up in the uhhh, state they are currently in."

Taking a puff of his cigar, he placed the large barrel from his shoulder on the floor beside him before speaking once more. "If you could just enlighten me, that'd be great, bub."

"Y-....Yes sir... Mr. Gabagool sir..." The casino manager responded nervously as he desperately looked to those around him for help. Though there was non to be given. "W-well you see... it-.... It was uhhh..."

"It was a what, c'mon bub, speak up now. I ain't got all day."

"R-right... Y-you see there was this, uhh.." Looking around desperately once again. "There was this pirate... and he uhhh...."

"A pirate...? A human pirate...?"

"W....Well yes... A human pirate and he... Well, he came here and uhh... He fought with the C.O.L.D. who were here on vacation and..."

"And he's still alive? Old coots must be losing their touch." The suited beaver snickered. "Now, uhh, he wouldn't happen to be the same guy that wrecked our other, let's say, interests. Would he?"

"Fr-...From what we gather.... Yes... We think so..."

"Huh...." Gabagool muttered as he glanced around the wrecked casino. "And uhh, where was you when all this was going down?"

"P-Pardon...?"

"Oh, well, let me restate my question for ya. I must'a not been speaking clearly. Where the fuck was you, when this little fuck of a human pirate came in 'ere. Wrecked up all the bosses shit, after wrecking up all the other shit that, might I remind you since you are hard of hearing and all. Is also, the fucking bosses shit." Pointing to the large moose head adorning the back wall of the casino.

Frozen in fear, the casino manager muttered something under his breath. Paralyzed and unable to communicate to the mafia mink in anything more than a garbled mess.

"Seems like to me, we are in need of some new management round 'ere" He Removed a gun from the barrel next to him and placed it on the man's forehead. He spoke a prayer and kissed the beads that dangled from his left wrist before pulling the trigger and ending the pleading man's life.

"Now then, congratulations on the promotion." Tossing the man's moose pin to the crying girl next to him. "Collection's in a month."

[Emilia]

The blimp drifted above the clouds, having put enough space in between the blue sea and themselves to stay out of range of the marine's cannon fire. The trio now resting easy as they took a breath for the first time in what felt like forever.

Volo glanced out over the sea, thinking back on Noda's words and his reckless behavior. Staring at his strained fist as it trembled in anger before letting out a sigh. "Gotta figure out a new way to fight.." Mumbling to himself before turning back to his newfound crew and smiling. The start of a new adventure with new friends was upon him, he was freedom was still new to him but he was beginning to wear it well.

Wait Volo stopped and stared at his foot, "I've had something in my boot this whole time and its been fucking killing me." Mumbling to himself as he sat and his but and tugged off his shoe. *Clink* a metal lighter fell to the deck. "Hey, Karl! I found your lighter!"

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